"You see..." The man nodded slowly. "Two nights ago, there was an ambush on the road west of here."
"Three creatures—much larger than wolves—moved as if they were following orders." He paused to catch his breath, wincing in pain. "They didn't just attack...!"
"They herded us and tried to position themselves between us and the road, as if they wanted to take us somewhere specific!"
"My wife got the kids out of the way, and I held the gap."
"Herding you," Lucian said. "I get what that sounds like..."
Lucian said honestly, "It sounds like exactly what I'm worried it is."
He looked at the man's face, which showed the weathered patience of someone who had been scared for too long to show it in any obvious way. "When you say they tried to take you somewhere, which way did they go?"
"North. Up into the hills."
Lucian took five hundred gold coins out of his bag and put them in the man's hand. "Here... for you and your family's safety and needs."
